We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. It was at around 6:00 am and I was just about to wake up and prepere tea for my school going children I hardly had a wink after seeing that I had received money from GiveDirectly. I woke up that early prepared tea for my children as I reorganized myself on how I was going to spend the money needed.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life is the electricity that I was able to connect to my home. Our home was the only house that was left behind after the last mile connectivity program by the government and we always felt out of place being the only household in the entire village that did not have electricity. I had the desire of installing electricity in our home but this required more money to do so which we could not easily accumulate. We always looked forward to having much money that could allow us do this but the little amount of money that we got from our casual work was just enough to meet the daily needs and pay school fees albeit with a lot of struggles. With this transfer, I was not only able to install the electricity in our home but also pay school fees for our child for the next two terms and more.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent most of my transfer on electricity connection in my house and used the remaining amount to pay school fee for my child. So many people in my village had had their houses connected to the national grid system through the last mile connectivity program but we had been left out of that program. On receiving this transfer, we made a decision to connect our home to the grid system. We are now a proud family that we are going to have electricity in our home and run away from other costly sources of energy. With this electricity my primary school kids will also have a chance to pursue their education without much difficulties since they can now be sure to do their homeworks uninterrupted.
Enrolled
access_time over 4 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
We entirely depend on the sale of milk in order to sustain our family. We currently own three cows which produces around 10 litres which is hardly enough to cater for the entire family's (a family of 6 members) needs. I am therefore planning to add more dairy cows from the transfer that we will receive from Give Directly.
What is the happiest part of your day?
My day start by feeding our dairy cows early in the morning after my children have left for school. At times I attend to our dairy cows up to around mid day when I start preparing lunch for our school going children. I use almost the entire afternoon to do household chores such as washing clothes, utensils, among others. It is only in the evening when I have free time to relax and chat with my family on how their day was.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Due to change of weather in our area, we have been unable to harvest enough maize which we depend on (to cater for school and domestic expenses). I has been more than six years since we experience drop in our maize field yet it was our main source of income. Owing to change of weather, we have faced a lot of difficulty in our life.
